Abstract

Author:
Mohamed S. M. Ahmed, Gehan Z., Mohamed and Noura E. Shafik

Doi: 10.26480/sfna.02.2024.140.146

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

A field experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions in both the Horticulture Research Institute and Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate. Both sites were located in Dokki, Giza Governorate, Egypt, during the summer seasons of 2022 and 2023. The production of seeds from selected cucumber parents was completed during both the summer and winter of 2021. This investigation sought to examine the outcomes of three irrigation regimes, which were calculated based on reference evapotranspiration (ETo) at the experimental site. The different irrigation regimes were 100%, 80%, and 60% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), namely, T1, T2, and T3, respectively, and were applied through a drip irrigation system. The second factor of the study consisted of five strains of gynoecious cucumber (Cucumis sativus, L.), including 1380-1 (P1), 87-674-1 (P2), 99-340 (P3), 99-357 (P4), and 99-347 (P5), which were grown and tested in a split-plot experimental design with three replicates. Data on vegetative development, flowering, production, and quality were recorded. The obtained results were as follows: the maximum plant height (191.2 cm, 193.1 cm), number of leaves (68.6, 69.3), fruit length (16.7 cm, 16.9 cm), fruit weight (101.7 g, 102.7 g), fruit diameter (33 mm, 33.3 mm), number of fruits per plant (58.2, 58.8), early fruit yield per plant (1.71 kg, 1.73 kg), and total fruit yield per plant (6.17 kg, 6.23 kg) during the first and second seasons, respectively, were obtained from the irrigation level of 100% ETc. The flowering data indicated no significant differences between the irrigation regimes. Water use efficiency (WUE) was calculated, and the highest WUE values were obtained from both the T3 and T2 irrigation regimes, respectively. The research confirmed the hypothesis that soil moisture levels affect the growth, yield, and quality characteristics of cucumber.